National (U.S.)

"With dozens dead and scores of buildings reduced to rubble, residents of the Midwest and South on Sunday were assessing the damage that a series of vicious twisters left behind last week. By the time the powerful storm system faded, 39 were dead: 21 in Kentucky, 13 in Indiana, three in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Georgia."

"A U.S. judge sided with tobacco companies on Wednesday, ruling that regulations requiring large graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising violate free-speech rights under the U.S. Constitution."

"The Nuclear Energy Institute and the National Mining Association, Monday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to reverse the Obama administration's withdrawal of one million acres of public land in Arizona from uranium mining for 20 years."

Tornado warnings mean life or death -- as recent storms in the Midwest showed. Minutes count, and better staffing and technology can help the National Weather Service save lives with earlier tornado warnings. But the political drive to cut federal agency budgets are hurting the NWS's ability to improve forcasts, a federal employee union says.

Budget pressures -- at least politically perceived ones -- are threatening basic science about the nation's water resources. In recent years the US Geologican Survey has cut back its programs for measuring streamflow and water quality -- which help protect people from flood disasters and drinking unhealthful water.

"Less than a year after surging waves from a Japanese earthquake battered the California coast, causing $58 million in damage and wrecking the Santa Cruz and Crescent City harbors, the Obama administration is moving to reduce funding for the nation's tsunami warning and preparedness programs."

"Two utility companies announced the closure of 10 aging U.S. power plants Wednesday, a move environmental groups hailed as a major victory even as critics warned it could raise the price of electricity."

Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post February 29, 2012.

SEE ALSO:

"NASHUA, N.H. -- With his re-election fate increasingly tied to the price Americans are paying at the gas pump, President Obama asked Congress on Thursday to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies and vowed to tackle the country’s long-term energy issues while shunning 'phony election-year promises about lower gas prices.'"

"Most of the biggest polluting industrial boilers are in manufacturing states east of the Mississippi River, but 68 dot the West coast states."

"The war of words between the Obama reelection campaign and billionaire conservative activists Charles and David Koch escalated Wednesday. The president's campaign manager, Jim Messina, sent a letter to Philip Ellender, Koch’s president for government and public affairs, disputing Ellender's claim that an organization partially backed by the brothers represented the interests of thousands of grassroots donors."